Sunderland, Ashbrooke Crescent, Church of St. John

HER Number:
7112

District:
Sunderland

Site Name:
Sunderland, Ashbrooke Crescent, Church of St. John

Place:
Sunderland

Map Sheet:
NZ35NE

Class:
Religious Ritual and Funerary

Site Type: Broad:
Methodist Chapel

Site Type: Specific:
Wesleyan Methodist Chapel

General Period:
Early Modern

Specific Period:
C19

Form of Evidence:
Extant Building

Description:
Wesleyan Methodist church with hall attached. 1887-8 and hall c1907 by Robert Curwen; main contractors J.H. Thorp and sons, Leeds. Rock-faced sandstone with ashlar sandstone dressings and interior. Prudhoe stone for tower and Denwick for interior. Lakeland slate roof. Early English style. Meeting rooms in undercroft. Hall has central round stair tower. Octagonal stone spire. Interior – plaster and ashlar. Hammer beam roof. High quality furnishings throughout include pulpit and reading desk on stone pedestals, with remarkable pulpit handrail of brass in form of serpent. Brass and cast-iron communion rail with sunflower and leaf patterns. Choir pews with carved ends. Small brightly coloured lancet of 1888 in north transept to son, aged 9 of first minister. East window commemorating T.C. Squance (d.1897), with scenes from life of Christ. High quality west window to J.W. Taylor with scenes of Crucifixion across all lights. LISTED GRADE 2

Easting:
3954

Northing:
5587

Grid Reference:
NZ39545587

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
Department of National Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, 920-1/16/7; T. Corfe and G. Milburn, 1984, Buildings and Beliefs: Sunderland, p 18 G. Milburn et al, 1988, St John’s, Ashbrooke 1888-1988, pp 16-35; N. Pevsner (second edition revised by Elizabeth Williamson), 1983, The Buildings of England - County Durham, page 452